This invention relates generally to dredging equipment and more particularly to apparatus used in conjunction with a sluice box of a gold mining dredge.
Gold prospectors searching for surface gold typically use a gold mining dredge to pick up and collect loose overburden (gravel, sand, gold nuggets, etc.) found near stream beds and the like. The collected overburden is panned for gold. A standard dredge basically includes a hose and connected nozzle, motor-driven pump, and inclined sluice box. Overburden and stream water is sucked up through the nozzle and hose in vacuum-like fashion and deposited into an upper end of the sluice box. The overburden is collected in the sluice box by a carpet lining the bottom of the box and by a series of interconnected transverse bars (riffle ladder) atop the carpet. The stream water drains out a lower end portion of the box.
Once the sluice box is filled to a point where it no longer collects the overburden efficiently, the pump is stopped and the sluice box is cleaned out. Typically, the sluice box is cleaned out by first removing the riffle ladder and carpet from the box. Then, with the sluice box inclined at a relatively steep angle and tilted partially on edge, the collected overburden is washed into an open bucket held underneath a lower end of the box. Alternatively, the overburden can be washed or dumped into a sieve, such as the model GSP-1 or GSP-2 sold by D&K Detector Sales, Inc., 13809 S.E. Division, Portland, Oregon 97236, which fits snugly over a shallow gold pan. The carpet is normally cleaned separately by rinsing it with water.
The above approach is deficient in two important respects. First, even with the sluice box tilted on edge, often times a portion of the potentially gold-bearing overburden cleaned from the sluice box misses the bucket or sieve and is lost. Second, it is quite difficult, if not impossible, for a single prospector to lift and tilt the heavy, overburden-laden sluice box on edge, pour water into the box and hold the bucket (or sieve and pan) underneath the box all at the same time. Even with two persons the process is cumbersome. This latter problem is prevalent in all but the smallest and lightest sluice boxes.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus which enables a single prospector easily to clean out sluice boxes of different sizes without losing any of the potentially gold-bearing overburden.